This is with the lid off the case, so admittedly these numbers would be higher with the lid installed. Unfortunately the video card I am using is too tall to allow me to close the lid. I plan to fix that soon.

I installed an XFX GF7950GT with has passive cooling and HDCP. I plan to use this system for Blu-Ray playback in a few months.

I removed the TriCool fans and replaced them with Nexus fans. I also installed the NT01 v2.0. Let me just say, first of all, that it just barely fit with this mobo and case. I mounted it so the fins are basically touching the fan. I also removed the duct because the screws holding it on were doing a poor job in the first place.

The Nexus "CPU fan" is currently just under 1100 rpm. For some reason the Intel utility isn't showing the speed of the other Nexus fan, but I can visibly see it's well under the speed of the "CPU" fan. CPU idle temp is now stabilized at 35C. There is very little noise - the PC I am typing this on is much noisier. I'll power it off later. For now I can only hear the new machine if I put my head right next to it.

I'd say this heatsink, mobo, and case combination are perfect for each other.

Pics coming soon! Also load temps...

Also a tip: If you decide to install this combination, mount the motherboard before you put the heatsink on and tighten it down!

1100 rpm is too fast. I need to slow the CPU fan down to ~ 600. Any suggestions? Speedfan doesn't seem to like this motherboard. I never cared for Speedfan anyway. Now that my other noise sources are turned off, this machine is still too noisy.

Interesting thought with the riser card, but I really don't mind having a hole on the top of the case. I'd have to modify the case one way or the other. My thought is that with the GPU fins sticking out the top of the case I have pretty much ideal airflow.

I still have CpuBurn running and the temps are holding steady... Yippee! The real test will be with the lid closed. But I can always crank up the fans a little without sacrificing much noise.

One stupid question. You said that you adjusted the HSF so that it touches fan. Do you mean to say that you can adjust HSF position slightly or am I misreading something? The reason I'm asking is that normally I would prefer to softmount all fans and if currently the fan is touching the heatsink there won't be any room to softmount fan.

Of course one could always buy a different motherboard with slighly different socket positioning further down, but I'm curious if you have some room on how you mount heatsink.

One stupid question. You said that you adjusted the HSF so that it touches fan. Do you mean to say that you can adjust HSF position slightly or am I misreading something? The reason I'm asking is that normally I would prefer to softmount all fans and if currently the fan is touching the heatsink there won't be any room to softmount fan.

Of course one could always buy a different motherboard with slighly different socket positioning further down, but I'm curious if you have some room on how you mount heatsink.

Sorry, I was rushing to post and my choice of words was less than ideal

There really isn't much adjustment possible. Right now the fins are touching the fan. It may be possible to prevent that by carefully aligning the retension bracket screws against the far edges of the mounting holes on the motherboard.

I initially installed the heatsink before mounting the motherboard, and found I couldn't get the motherboard screwed down without first removing the heatsink.

I bought a nexus "isolation kit" and tried soft mounting one of these fans, but I was very unhappy with how sloppy the fit was, so I ended up using screws instead. Given how well it seems to cool at ~600 rpm, I'm not terribly disappointed.

If you're careful I'd imagine you can bend the heatpipes a little...

Obviously the simplest thing to do is use a motherboard that puts a little more space between the socket and the edge of the PCB.

What a coincidence. My dad had to upgrade one of his pcs today because one of them died. He bought 6300 and NT01 with it. He has 2x80mm exhaust fans and a 120mm fan in PSU. Unfortunately the HSF seats about 1.5" from the exhaust fans and in such configuration it's completely unusable. The temperature hits 80 degrees C in idle. So it would seem rotating heatsink 180 degrees (even if you might be able to construct a duct) doesn't seem like a very good idea.

It would seem if someone wanted to use this heatsink he would have to find a mobo like yours that puts heatsink right besides exhaust fans, in my case a little further because I firmly believe in softmounting everything.

How much space do you have between the edge of the motherboard and the center of the socket? Processor temp at 52C seems pretty high, what was the ambient temperature, was this under load? I would have hoped at most 45C, ideal would be in the thirties, but i guess with core 2 duo that's not possible.

The above snapshot was taken while running 2 x CpuBurn and playing a 1080p WMVHD video...

What CPU intake fan are you taking about? You mean the fans mounted on the side of the case?

I have the same mobo that I am mounting on an Antec Fusion case which has a very similar setup as yours and I am wondering if the NT01 is the way to go as a passive heatsink. If this is your setup then it sounds perfect.

Anyone know of a good fan that can be plugged into the CPU fan 4 pin header?

I basically copied Bicster's setup, but with an E6600, Asus P5B-VM, and an MSI passive 7600GS (not over-tall). Oh, and my fans blow out instead of in. A few...er...more than a few... notes on my experience, in case it's of any help to someone thinking of a build along these lines.

My temps are significantly higher than Bicster's, even though I'm running the rear Nexus at 1100rpm.

A-columns are as I run it. B-columns are with fans wired serially (6V each). Numbers are from Speedfan 4.31, which gave identical numbers as the ASUS PCProbe-II.

Perhaps because E6600 vs E6400.
Perhaps because of the airflow direction.
Perhaps because Bicster couldn't put the lid on his case.
Or perhaps because I tweaked my heatpipes too much...
Everything as it came right out of the boxes, my NT01 & my rear fan conflicted. The heatpipes were not quite bent up to 90 degrees vertical. More like a 91 or 92 degree angle. If I mounted the NT01 flat and square on the cpu, then it left only space for a 23 mm thick fan. Since the fans are 25 thick, I had to bend the heatpipes a smidgeon so the NT01 fins wouldn't project so far rightward. "So," me thinks to me-self, "I have to bend the pipes by a couple mm just to fit, but if I bit them a little further still, then I'd have enough margin to let me soft-mount the fans." So I did. Bent them almost 10 mm. I carefully clamped the block of fins between cork-surfaced faces of a wood-working vise. And used a one-inch birch dowel to support the inside of the pipes' curve, while I bent them a couple degrees further. Further than I'd planned, really. But no kinks or such.

After all that, I looked about softmounting the fans. And realized it's not really *possible* to do so. There's only 120.5 mm vertically from the floor of the case up to the bottom of that curved-over lip of the sidewall. So if one *did* softmount the fans, they'd just vibrate up-and-down by 0.5mm and rattle against the top and bottom. So I bent the heatpipes *back* again, to just 2.5 mm from their original position. Now I have just under a mm between the NT01 fins and the hardmounted Nexus. Which is perfect.

The NT01 uses sintered powder capillary heatpipes. I don't know how well they like being tweaked, post-manufacture. One of these days, I'll get another NT01, and maybe it will be on the other end of the tolerance stackup, and will just fit right in without touching the fan. Or I'll bend it only once, and only as much as necessary for 0.5 mm clearance to the fan, and swap it in to see if it improves the cpu temps. And try in-vs-out airflows. Etc etc. For now, it's cool enough and a lot quieter than my tinnitis, and I have lots of work to do. It's been running solid and stable since October.

Oh, and another thing about using the NT01v2... The backing plate that goes on the bottom of the mobo has a thin layer of foam to insulate it from the PCB. My P5B-VM had numerous through-hole leads that stuck out by ~4mm from the bottom surface of the PCB. Some of them happen to be under the NT01 backing plate. They prevented it from sitting quite flat, and I was quite nervous about them someday poking through the foam and shorting against the metal plate. So I clipped them shorter -- only the ones that would be under or touching the NT01 mounting plate.

And the little knurled brass nuts that tighten the mounting screws to the mobo -- make sure they don't directly impact any top-layer PCB traces.

In general, I'm not super-keen on the thumbscrew mounting for the heatsink. Preloaded springs would produce more consistent mounting pressure. I felt that it was quite tricky to tighten the NT01 onto the cpu and get just the right mounting force and ensure the force was equal on all four corners. But I concede that this sort of mounting system is more flexible for use with different types of mobos and cpu sockets. Everything's a compromise.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Yahoo [Bot] and 4 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum